of course, if we fall off the fiscal cliff, we'll all die, right? actually, taxes will go up for pretty much everybody and automatic spending cuts kick in on knew year's day. the president and the house speaker met face-to-face just yesterday for the first time since the election, but are they talking about it? no. today an aide said the speaker is willing and still waiting for counteroffer from the president. ed henry is live at the white house. i don't know, ed. a meeting happens and nobody says anything. this could be seen as something more good than bad. >> reporter: exactly. because they didn't come out of the meeting beating each other up and saying i'm never going to sign a deal with the other guy. the fact that they're keeping this quiet, hush hush for now in terms of the details of what they discussed suggests that they're hopeful of a deal, although i have to tell you. the president sounded pretty optimistic when he was in michigan about the possibility of us going off the cliff and falling into a second recession. here's what he had to sa